Bloomberg Businessweek to launch in traditional Chinese for Hong Kong

An MMG spokesperson told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the magazine is aimed at the new generation of business elites and noted that there is no international business magazine in traditional Chinese specifically targeting the Hong Kong business sector. Aside from local newspapers, the only traditional-Chinese magazine is 經濟一週 (Economic Digest), a locally focused weekly. Forbes has a simplified-Chinese edition for the China market and FT has its ftchinese.com website.

MMG already publishes a simplified-Chinese edition of Bloomberg Businessweek, launched in November 2011. Half the content in the new Hong Kong-edition will come from the US edition of the magaazine and 25 per cent from the China edition. The rest will be tailor-made for the Hong Kong edition, covering Hong Kong and Taiwan business news, the spokesperson said.

The new printed weekly will have a circulation of 60,000, and there will also be a mobile app and iPad version supported by Bloomberg Terminal’s hourly news update.

Without disclosing the names of the advertisers for the launch issue, the spokesperson said the company has signed up major international luxury brands which are already advertising in the China edition. For the launch of the new magazine, MMG is to spend US$2 million (HK$15 million) for a marketing campaign in late June, which includes print and OOH. The company has also invited four CEOs from both local and international companies to be its brand ambassadors. The creative work for the campaign will be done in-house, while Mindshare is the media agency.

Modern Media was founded in 1993 in China and was listed in Hong Kong in 2009.